The Randhurst mall will close for good on Sep.30 th , many things have already been written about its past and can be seen on Labelscar.com and deadmalls.com so i don't want to do a repeat of that but take a more personal look at the mall and what it meant to me and how it fit into my life.The first time i ever herd of Randhurst was when i was in high school. I was doing a paper on urban planing for one of my classes and while going through old books in the library i found a book that talked about Randhurst. it said that Randhurst was one of the most innovative mall to date.It also said it had been the largest built at the time of its opening in 1962. I talked my parents into taking me there so in the spring of 1982 i wood walk though the doors for the first time. with my camera in hand ( i will post those photos soon ) . Through the years since, I wood come and go through there doors many many times. I saw Weibolds close and Bergners open. Wood see Mainstreet come and then become Kohls. Wood see Carsons move to Bergners building and then JCPennys open only to close latter. Spiess wood come and go . Oh what a fantastic store that was just to high end for Randhurst. Then Wards wood go that store was first the Fair Store . Kohls wood move down the street leaving only Carsons in the mall. Wards and kohls and jcpennys stores wood come down and be replaced by Cosco . with only one big problem no mall entrance and not a mall door near the new store . All i have to say is why did that do that?I wood move to Ill. In my 20s i wood move to Chicago and wood work at Randhurst as the assistant manager of the Bombay co. store there, I wood spend many years working There before becoming manager at the Spring hill store. So I want to not only say good buy to Randhurst but to the many people that I met their though the years , Nancy, George, Carson, Anita, Jay, Larry and all the people i worked with . Also a thanks to all the food court workers, mall security and most of all the customers who shopped us and keep ed us there fore as long as they could. Thank you to all and best wishes to the new randhurst village coming spring 2010 you know i will be there with my camera in hand on opening day
john
7 comments:
Feel good......
John: I remember you bringing me to this mall before on several occasions. One time, I saw a cd there that I considered buying and I regretted that I didn't ever since because I may have missed out on hearing some unique music. Then again, maybe I would have only liked the two songs that I was familiar with from two of my favorite bands: 10cc and Genesis. Anyway, I thought that this was a pretty decent mall in it's time! Also, I thought that you'd like to know that I was pulling out my hair during the whole time that I was reading the blog. Although, it is very interesting, I began to flinch every time that you misspelled the word "would"! And unfortunately, you used this word repeatedly throughout the whole article. Keep it up and I'll have to tell Ms. Fornary on you! Either that, or send you back to Gateway!
Take care,
Dr. Nu
John - This is a great set of photos, and I can't wait to see your 80's set. I practically grew up at Randhurst from a very young age through my early teen years - the late 60's through the mid-70's. It sure underwent a tremendous amount of change.
Please do not be offended by my remarks. I appreciate your time and effort and that you have shared your memories and photos of the mall. But a little proofreading and a spell checker would go a long way. Your use of “wood” in your post should be “would”.
Great posting. I lived a few blocks from Randhurst and pretty much grew up there. I also wrote a blog posting about the mall-- check it out at http://www.jtl.us/mtblog/2008/09/memory_lane_randhurst.html
Nice site!
Wieboldt's and Carson's were original anchors (with The Fair) The Wieboldt's at Randhurst was the last to close in the winter of 1987-88. Bergner's moved in and remodeled it into a Bergner's. When Bergner's bought out Carson's, they rebranded the Bergner's as Carson's and the old Carson's became JCPenney. The thing is, all Carson's eventually became Bergners inside in terms of interior design, layout, merchandise. Carson's became Bergner's in every way except name.
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